Late to the Party

Wednesday

May 7, 2014 at 11:11 AMMay 7, 2014 at 12:33 PM

I wasn’t going to chime in on the discussion of Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century until after I finished the book, which I did on Monday. I suspect, based upon the synopses that I’ve read that this book is fast on the way to becoming the year’s most prominent “book that no one has read.” Indeed, if you read the book, and you study the notes and graphs and whatnot, there isn’t anything interesting or ground breaking in it. What it really is is nothing more than a synthesis of a certain school of economic thought with a good public relations and marketing department behind it. In fact, the books describes what is often called Nixonian Marxism. If you’ve never heard of the “Great Heresy,” it refers to the concept that the boom boom 80s had nothing to do with Reagan, but rather had everything to do with Carter’s policies of the late 70′s, which slammed the breaks on bad policies of the Nixon years, so Republicans who gather in dark barns in the dark of night and suggest that maybe Reagan wasn’t so great, and that maybe Carter did better…. In fact, there are certainly better books than Capital which suggest that economic disparity has been caused by the dismantling of the Bretton Woods system, and that those who dismantled the system can hardly now be angry about the consequences of that decision.

I’m wondering who else on this blog has actually read the book.

I have this to say about Piketty, though. If the 2016 election devolves to the Democrats adopting a Nixonian Marxist plank and the Republicans adopt a Tea Party Gold Standard plank,this will be an interesting election indeed. If we can keep the voters awake.

Here are two quotes from folk who really think about these issues and with whom Obama and Picketty apparently violently disagree. I’d like to know what our readers think of these ideas and whether they have any validity:

1.”Economic activity, especially the activity of a market economy presupposes sure guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient pubic services. Hence, the principle task of the state is to guarantee this security, so that those who work and produce can enjoy the fruits of their labors and ths feel encouraged to work efficiently and honestly…”

2. “the right of private individuals to act freely in economic affairs is recognized in vain, unless they are at the same time given an opportunity of freely selecting and using things necessary for the exercise of this right. Moreover, experience and history testify that where political regimes do not allow to private individuals the possession also of productive goods, the exercise of human liberty is violated or completely destroyed in matters of primary importance. Thus, it becomes clear that in the right of property, the exercise of liberty finds both a safeguard and a stimulus..”

Rob Meltzer

I wasn’t going to chime in on the discussion of Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century until after I finished the book, which I did on Monday. I suspect, based upon the synopses that I’ve read that this book is fast on the way to becoming the year’s most prominent “book that no one has read.” Indeed, if you read the book, and you study the notes and graphs and whatnot, there isn’t anything interesting or ground breaking in it. What it really is is nothing more than a synthesis of a certain school of economic thought with a good public relations and marketing department behind it. In fact, the books describes what is often called Nixonian Marxism. If you’ve never heard of the “Great Heresy,” it refers to the concept that the boom boom 80s had nothing to do with Reagan, but rather had everything to do with Carter’s policies of the late 70′s, which slammed the breaks on bad policies of the Nixon years, so Republicans who gather in dark barns in the dark of night and suggest that maybe Reagan wasn’t so great, and that maybe Carter did better…. In fact, there are certainly better books than Capital which suggest that economic disparity has been caused by the dismantling of the Bretton Woods system, and that those who dismantled the system can hardly now be angry about the consequences of that decision.

I’m wondering who else on this blog has actually read the book.

I have this to say about Piketty, though. If the 2016 election devolves to the Democrats adopting a Nixonian Marxist plank and the Republicans adopt a Tea Party Gold Standard plank,this will be an interesting election indeed. If we can keep the voters awake.

Here are two quotes from folk who really think about these issues and with whom Obama and Picketty apparently violently disagree. I’d like to know what our readers think of these ideas and whether they have any validity:

1.”Economic activity, especially the activity of a market economy presupposes sure guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient pubic services. Hence, the principle task of the state is to guarantee this security, so that those who work and produce can enjoy the fruits of their labors and ths feel encouraged to work efficiently and honestly…”

2. “the right of private individuals to act freely in economic affairs is recognized in vain, unless they are at the same time given an opportunity of freely selecting and using things necessary for the exercise of this right. Moreover, experience and history testify that where political regimes do not allow to private individuals the possession also of productive goods, the exercise of human liberty is violated or completely destroyed in matters of primary importance. Thus, it becomes clear that in the right of property, the exercise of liberty finds both a safeguard and a stimulus..”